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Category Archives: first impressions

I’ve been in love with Animal Crossing ever since I first played Wild World nearly 10 years ago. The gameplay is simple, and some would even argue repetitive, but there’s a charm about the games that taught me patience and money management skill I still use today.

I’ll admit that I was probably among the first people to cry out against a ‘pay-to-win’ mobile variant of one of my favourite games of all time, but it’s surprisingly not bad. Even with the addition of ‘Leaf Tickets’ in Pocket Camp, it doesn’t feel like the game is a freemium cash grab, but a genuine installment in the series that just so happens to be free and on mobile. Sure, the whole thing where you have to move around all your furniture just to invite one animal over is slightly more annoying than I think was intended, but at least I haven’t been in a frustrating position that can only be resolved with spending some of my IRL cash.

Despite the final game’s dismissal of my original skepticism, I only played it for about 4 hours when it came out and I haven’t touched it since.

So, then, why aren’t I enjoying it? What do I like about Animal Crossing that Pocket Camp has failed to capture? What do I even like about Animal Crossing?

To be honest, these feel like harder questions than the meaning of life…

Is there anyone out there who’s actually been enjoying this game?

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Not too long ago today, Nintendo finally revealed their “NX” project in a video on Youtube and the Nintendo Switch, as they’ve named it, seems much less cumbersome than the rumours made it out to be.

When I saw the design I immediately thought it’s just a new version of the WiiU but honestly I think that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be. I think their main focus was to create the flexible console that the WiiU should have been. The Switch lets you pick up from exactly where you left off anywhere you want, something many (myself included) thought you should have been able to do with the WiiU, given the sheer size and weight of the gamepad.

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It’s a pretty cool idea that you can detach the controller parts from the handheld screen and connect them to an accessory, just hold them on their own or even hand one to a friend for multiplayer mode. And kudos for adding the kickstand.

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One worry I do have is the size. I don’t know the exact dimensions but it looks huge. It’s probably at least the size of a 7″ tablet so it will probably weigh quite a bit more than a 3DS and maybe even an iPad unless they’re planning on compromising the battery life, like they did with the gamepad’s measly 2 hours (or in the case of mine, 20 minutes). To be honest, I don’t really mind as long as it’s somewhere close to the 3DS’s 5 hours of continuous gameplay (or pretty much eternal standby mode).

Another worry, which is still size related is the power. Judging from what we’ve seen, the same item that houses the portable screen is essentially the entirety of the console itself. That’s slightly worrying when we’ve seen that it appears to be fully capable of running Skyrim. In order for it to run something like that, we’d probably be looking at at least 4-8GB RAM and I’m no tech expert but my 3GB RAM (fanless) phone does get pretty toasty sometimes… Baring in mind it’s already probably in the range of around 1lb already, adding fans will just make it even heavier.

It seems like a pretty cool system but ultimately I’l have to wait and see what games (other than Just Dance 2017) will be available at launch before I commit myself to spending whatever they plan on selling it for. So, I guess I won’t be talking about this again until it comes out in March…

This was going to be a review but because of insane amounts of work, I’ve only managed to complete case 2 so far.

I’ve been waiting for the sixth instalment in the Ace Attorney series from the moment I completed Dual Destinies back in 2013 so yes, I was sad enough to sit down in front of my3DS, constantly refreshing the Nintendo eShop for 3 hours last Thursday.

Anyway, on to the game.

The first thing that hit me was the slight tweaking of the 3D models to make them look more like their sprites from the DS games which is a pretty nice touch.

It’s also great to see that, instead of solely relying on 2D animated cutscenes, they’ve successfully (in my opinion) managed to incorporate 3D cutscenes as well.

And I of course, can’t forget to mention the soundtrack that makes me jump from my seat, scream “OBJECTION!” and then proceed to pump my fists and/or hi-five any passersby (I think I have too much fun when playing this).

I’m not too sure if I like the new prosecutor guy (I mean HOW DARE HE THINK THAT TRUCY COULD BE A MURDERER???) but at least it looks like they’ve finally gotten round to developing Apollo’s character.